Let’s discuss fantasy races

I’ve been working on the lore for this work for awhile now. It’s going to be a D&D campaign but same rules still apply story telling wise!

How do you all tackle fantasy races? I love the classics but it’s become a kind of meme that all fantasy writers use them, and that they’re all the same.

I try to fix this, but still retain the same feel of the original characters, and I’d love to hear your different takes on the subject.

My elves have four arms and are close descendants of the fae. All of them have three eyes, and they are an inherently chaotic people, much like their gods/ancestors. My fae have no body shape and manifest themselves however they want. The elves themselves grow from the branches of sacred trees, in a “fetus fruit” (just the working name lol).

Dwarves on the other hand are on average seven feet tall. They were named by their gods, who were the last pureblooded giants. Their gods were enslaved and had their names stolen, rendering their power as gods of the physical realm gone. As a result, the dwarves have no afterlife, and float in endless darkness forever after they die. Dwarves are deathly afraid of the dark because of this, and enslaved gnomes to go deep into the mines for them, while they refine the raw materials with that legendary dwarven craftsmanship we all know them for.

My men are all fiends. In my universe, the Five Fiends represent amoral law. The fae represent the complex and emotional chaos that law seeks to control. All humans are the lowest rank of fiend, banished from the GreyFells (the demon realm) for breaking their tenants and cursed to live with the ever present fear of death.

Okay, so I’ve had this issue on my mind for awhile now and I’d really like to know what you guys think. So, when writing a story set in a fantasy world I’d say it’s safe to assume that the characters in this world don’t necessarily speak English. This doesn’t…

Hi! I am a big fan of the fantasy genre. Lately I have been thinking of writing down my different ideas and doing it orderly as I have also begun playing role-playing games with my friends. For me it is very important with well thought out story arcs and explanations…

My fantasy world is one that is not based on a planet, but a plane of existence containing a nearly endless sky full of floating islands. There are no stars. The star analog, that makes the night sky look pretty, cannot be used for navigation. There is no sun, but…